Chapter 79: Formation and Water Herbs
"It’s a good thing." Yu Nianzhen said as he looked at the herb.
The blue dawn bamboo had a mind-cleansing effect.
It could calm the mind and prevent mind demons when cultivating.
Although it was only a peak grade silver rank herb, the rank of items refined from it could be upgraded using other resources.
"What should we refine?" Jiang Yue asked as he picked the herb.
After that, he passed the herb to Yu Nianzhen who threw it in the jade box.
"How about hair bands?" Jiang suggested without waiting for Yu Nianzhen’s reply.
"Master gave me a silver guan when I became his disciple."
"I had forgotten about that."
After saying that, Jiang Yue fell into thought.
Because of its shape, it was most popular to refine blue dawn bamboo into hairbands.
However, this was only a preference. It wasn’t necessary to retain the bamboo shape when refining it.
"How about pendants?"
"Pendants are also good."
Other than the shape, another reason why cultivators chose hairbands was that the item would be close to the baihui acupoint.
In this way, the mind cleansing effect would directly trickle into the mind from the baihui acupoint.
However, a pendant was also a good option since it was close to the heart.
"Watch out."
On reflex, Jiang Yue pulled Yu Nianzhen, and both jumped backwards.
At the same time, Yu Nianzhen swung his sword to block in front of them.
"Heavy mountain strike."
When the slash flew out, the water in front of them rippled outward like a wave.
Soon after, the wave encountered twelve water arrows.
The arrows sunk into the water and became part of the wave.
However, this was only the beginning.
When the twelve arrows were dissolved, another twenty-four flew towards them.
Again, Yu Nianzhen used the heavy mountain strike to create a wave to intercept the arrows.
"This is not good." Yu Nianzhen said after the third have.
"En.
From the three attacks, the two had discovered that the number of arrows would double with every strike.
"It’s not easy to defend against."
Yu Nianzhen was wielding his sword, and Jiang Yue was wielding his whip.
However, using their weapons was considerably difficult in the water compared to the outside world.
Now that they were in the water, their attacks encountered a lot of resistance and didn’t have their usual power.
"We have to persevere."
After saying that, Yu Nianzhen swung his sword thrice.
Each time was the heavy mountain strike, and the layering caused a huge wave to flow outward.
In the same way, Jiang Yue swung his whip several times to layer.
However, their attacks couldn’t completely block the arrows.
A moment later, tens of arrows fell on them, and blood holes appeared on their bodies.
"That last attack was more than three hundred arrows." Jiang Yue said.
His voice had a hint of wariness, and Yu Nianzhen was no different.
He felt that they couldn’t hold on if the formation continued to throw out water arrows.
"Stand behind me." He said.
Jiang Yue rolled his eyes and then glared at the other.
"Why don’t you stand behind me?" To make his point, he took a step forward and stood in front of Yu Nianzhen.
"Jiang Yue, this isn’t the time to be stubborn."
"Are you saying you are stronger than me?" At this time, Jiang Yue’s eyes were slightly narrowed.
"I have refined my body."
"What refining?! Your current body refining is only slightly better than me."
Yu Nianzhen couldn’t say anything to that.
Still, he wanted to stand in front of Jiang Yue.
"Wait, it seems that the attack has stopped." Yu Nianzhen said.
From what he could tell, there was a difference of one breath between each wave of attacks.
However, a breath had passed since the last one.
This meant they would be safe for a short while before the formation initiated the next batch of attacks.
"Let’s see if we can leave."
After the previous attacks, both boys realised they had underestimated the formation.
Now that they saw the formation’s power, they wanted to make sure there was a way to escape.
A moment later, they arrived in front of the formation.
However, they did not touch the water boundary.
Instead, Jiang Yue picked a rock from the ground and threw it at the formation.
When the rock touched the formation, it shone with blue light, and the stone was reduced to dust.
"It seems we can’t get out unless we break the formation."
"That seems to be the case."
"Let’s collect some herbs first. Afterwards, we can cooperate with the others to break the formation."
Although they weren’t friendly with the other cultivators in the underwater garden, survival came first.
Those cultivators would have to cooperate even if they didn’t want to.
"Good."
Side by side, the two walked away from the water boundary.
Although they had a map of the secret realm, it didn’t cover the underwater garden.
Because of that, they could only walk about randomly in search of herbs.
"Waterwheel plant." Yu Nianzhen suddenly said.
He grabbed Jiang Yue’s hand, and both walked toward a herb growing three metres away.
The herb was two metres tall, and its top looked like a waterwheel.
"How to harvest this one?" Jiang Yue asked as he looked at the plant warily.
The waterwheel plant was a high-grade silver rank herb.
It was carnivorous and usually ate small animals in the water.
Although it could not kill a cultivator, it had sharp teeth, and its bite was very painful.
Jiang Yue did not want to experience it and even had the thought of abandoning the herb.
After all, the waterwheel herb was only good for refining a gu-consuming pill.
"The gu territory is far from the Sea Cloud sect. We are not at risk of being infected with gu." Jiang Yue mumbled.
When he heard that, Yu Nianzhen chuckled and shook his head.
He knew what the other was thinking, but he didn’t want to let go of the herb.
Even if the gu territory was not close to the sect, gu cultivators had entered the secret realm.
Although they may not encounter them this time around, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t in the future.
"Don’t worry, I have a way."
"You do?"
Rather than answer, Yu Nianzhen removed a pill from his storage ring.
"A sleeping pill?"
In surprise, Jiang Yue watched as Yu Nianzhen crushed the pill.
Soon after, the other approached the waterwheel plant.
He released a small amount of qi and waited for the plant to open its mouth before dumping half of the sleeping pill powder in its mouth.
"Let’s hope that works." He said as he took a step back.
"It should work."
As expected, the sleeping pill worked.
Without a chance to resist, the waterwheel plant fell asleep after three breaths.
When it did, its mouth closed, and its teeth were hidden.
"I will store it quickly."
Yu Nianzhen didn’t know how long the effect would last.
Because of that, he quickly picked the herb and threw it into the jade box.
"I have been thinking..."
"What?"
"Is it okay to throw in aquatic plants?"
When Yu Nianzhen threw in the blue dawn bamboo, Jiang Yue didn’t think about it too much.
However, he suddenly thought about it after the waterwheel was thrown in.
The waterwheel was not only an aquatic plant, it was also a carnivore.
As far as Jiang Yue knew, there were no animals in the jade box.
This made him wonder whether the waterwheel could survive.
"This..., I hadn’t thought about it."
Yu Nianzhen blushed a little when he admitted that.
However, he wasn’t too perturbed.
The farm in the jade box was surrounded by a river. He expected the river could support the water plants.
If the waterwheel couldn’t survive without small animals, it wouldn’t be too much of a loss since the plant wasn’t that important.
"Let’s move on." He finally said.
Jiang Yue chuckled, but he didn’t say anything.
"How long have we been in here?"
"Twenty minutes."
"We should hurry."
"Good."
After saying that, the two continued to walk forward.
At the bottom of the lake, light was dim, and water resistance made it difficult to walk and identify herbs.
However, the two were lucky.
Ten metres from the location of the waterwheel herb, they found another peak grade silver rank herb.
"Eight petal fire lily." Jiang Yue exclaimed.
The eight-petal fire lily was a special herb.
Although it grew in water, it belonged to the fire element.
However, its fire category was yin rather than yang.
"Unfortunately, yin fires are difficult to find." Jiang Yue said as he harvested the herb.
When contracting a fire, a lot of resources were needed.
One of the resources was a herb capable of controlling the fire to prevent it from damaging a cultivator’s organs and meridians.
The eight-petal fire lily was such a herb.
It could control yin fire allowing a cultivator to contract and integrate the fire.
